10th Avenue Red Fife Planted

The Red Fife on 10th Avenue went in today.  This is a 1.6 acre field that Dale Nelson is taking care of for me.  He grew soybeans in it last year and the field was worked up in October and also had a couple loads of manure spread on it.  I have been waiting for this field to dry out and this was the first day we could realistically get in this year.  It was still a tad wet but I think it will be OK.

Dale ran a spring tooth over it in the AM and we met back in the afternoon with a 12' John Deere drill.  I wanted to spread at a rate of 210 lbs/acre (this seed tested at about 55% germination), but the adjustment was stuck and I could only get it to notch 35 (should have been notch 38).  Anyway, this worked out pretty well in the end.  Dale drilled the seed in conventionally and there was about 1 bushel left after going over everything once.  Then we changed the setting back to notch 20 and he ran the drill East and West primarily, which helped cover some of the seed that did not quite get in.  The seed would have covered better if we had waited for a dryer day.

"The cultivation of Red Fife wheat in the United States dates from 1860 when JW Clarke a Wisconsin farmer had an excellent crop. The name Red Fife was never commonly adopted the word Fife being the name most often used As the wheat increased in popularity and cultivation other names became applied to it."  -- Classification of American Wheat Varieties

The seed did not cover as well in the tire tracks of the tractor, which compressed the soil.  

Running the seed out while driving across the first set of tracks was a convenient way of working the seed in a little better.  A spike tooth would have done a similar job.